It is now more than five weeks since news emerged that Chinese consortia had expressed an interest in Newcastle United - yet still the Magpies remain unsold.

Not only that but Mike Ashley still retains a 100 per cent stake in the club, despite having reportedly tasked his ‘fixer’ Justin Barnes with finding a buyer or a part-investor to come on board.

In truth, the ‘news’ which trickled out was nothing new. There has been tentative interest from a number of consortia, primarily from China and the USA, in acquiring Newcastle for the past half-decade or more.

Clearly Ashley, or someone close to the Sports Direct magnate, wanted that information out there. The reason for that is twofold: to advertise that the club is on the market, and to determine whether any of those parties who have registered an interest are willing to finally invest.

But, despite there having been no significant movement on the Newcastle ownership front, it seems there are rich individuals out there who are keen to buy or at the very lest invest in Premier League clubs.

The Daily Mail reports that leading financier Amanda Staveley - who is the former girlfriend of Prince Andrew - is “interested in purchasing a top-flight club if the right one comes on the market”.

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Interestingly, Staveley helped broke the deal which saw Thaksin Shinawatra sell Manchester City to Abu Dhabi’s Sheikh Mansour, while her business PCP Capital Partners reportedly had a joint-bid with Chinese firm Everbright Limited for Liverpool rejected by the Fenway Sports Group a year ago.

At the moment Ashley remains Newcastle owner, but clearly there is interest in buying Premier League clubs out there. Whether anything substantive ever comes of it, only time will tell.